Secure Information Storage

During the Information Lifecycle, data must be encrypted when
stored on your devices or sent to someone else. With laptops and
mobile devices now commonplace, most of us are used to taking our
electronic lives with us when we leave each day. Unfortunately, if
you deal with regulated information, this also presents a serious
risk if your equipment is ever lost or stolen.

Encryption Considerations

As with any encryption technology, if you lose your password,
the files are usually unrecoverable unless you've made backups.
Also, file, folder and whole-disk encryption generally don’t
protect your files if your computer is compromised. Encryption
technology is best suited for protecting information if your laptop
(or portable storage drive) is lost or stolen. Finally, if or when
your devices “wake up” (i.e. opening your laptop, or
pressing your phone’s home button), the device must ask for a
password before granting access. If it doesn’t do this, the
encryption provides no value as the information on the device can
be accessed by whomever found or stole the device.

Windows

UB owns a product (PGP Whole Disk Encryption) that can protect
the regulated information on your device in the event it’s
stolen. Ask your IT support or the Information
Security Office about getting this program installed. Also
available are a wide variety of no-cost technologies that can be
used to protect UB's regulated information.

There is a feature called Encrypting File System (EFS) that
allows you to encrypt all of specific folders and files.

Windows Vista and above (Enterprise/Ultimate/Pro editions only)

These versions include BitLocker which will encrypt your entire
drive. It requires more effort to enable than EFS, but once
enabled, you don't have to remember to encrypt information as you
save it to your laptop.

Mac OS

Included is an encrypted file system feature using its Disk
Utility application. This feature is similar to Windows Encrypting
File System, but requires some effort to initially configure the
encrypted file system. Once configured, it lets you selectively
encrypt files and folders.

OS X also includes a feature called FileVault that will
encrypt your entire home folder. This feature is similar to
BitLocker in that it encrypts, essentially, all of your working
files. FileVault is very easy to configure.

Linux

UBIT offers TrueCrypt, which is also available for Windows and
OS X as a free add-on application. It allows for the encryption of
specific files and folders, or for entire disks. Some Linux
distributions include TrueCrypt as an installation option,
requiring very little effort to enable.